A few highlights of the GALWAY FILM FLEADH

25TH GALWAY FILM FLEADH

Dir. Frank Delaney | Ireland | 2012

Waking The Titanic

At 4am on 10 April 1914, fourteen people left the tiny village of Lagherdaun, Co. Mayo (population 96). Escaping poverty, they were emigrating to America. Unfortunately for them they were booked to travel on the new superliner, the HMS Titanic. Eleven of the fourteen died in the tragedy. They became known as the ‘Addergoole 14’. The villagers from Lagherdaun were so traumatised by the loss that they went silent. They didn’t speak about it even among themselves. Within two generations the story was lost completely. This documentary tells the story of the Addergoole 14 and how the village that lost more people on Titanic than any other community in the world rediscovered their lost history.

Running Time: 52 mins | Colour

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An Dubh Ina Gheal (Assimilation)

The poet Louis de Paor lived in Australia for ten years in the 1980s, where he composed Didjeridu and An Dubh ina Gheal, his poetic responses to the plight of the Aboriginal people. In the documentary An Dubh ina Gheal, Louis returns there to explore how the Irish, as a founding people in the story of white Australia, were complicit in their dispossession. At the heart of this exploration is the story of the Stolen Generations, mixed race children, many of Irish heritage, who were taken away from their families to be assimilated. A few decades later, an Aboriginal resistance lead by ‘Shamrock Aborigines’ of Irish descent saw theirs as a shared struggle against a common oppressor. Weaving social and personal history with poetry, An Dubh ina Gheal is the hidden story of the Irish in Australia.
Running Time: 53 mins | Colour

Louis de Paor is Director for Centre for Irish Studies at NUI Galway. he was a special guest at the 2011 Daonscoil in Victoria, Australia.

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Life’s a Breeze is a feel-good ‘recession comedy’ about a family struggling to stay afloat and stay together through hard times in Ireland. Unemployed slacker Colm (Pat Shortt), his aging mother Nan (Fionnula Flanagan) and his niece Emma (Kelly Thornton) must overcome their many differences to lead their family
in a race against time to find a lost fortune. Who said life’s a breeze?
The Galway Film Fleadh is delighted to present the world premiere of Life’s a Breeze as part of our 25th programme. Lance Daly’s latest is that rarest of things: a feel-good comedy that actually delivers on its promise. Featuring inspired performances from Fionnula Flanagan, Pat Shortt, Eva Birthistle and newcomer Kelly Thornton, Life’s A Breeze proves that, though the country may be bollixed, there’s still plenty to smile about in this life-affirming comedy

A fly-on-the-wall film crew follows cult Irish comedy rock band Dead Cat Bounce on a desperate quest across Europe to reunite lead singer Jim with his long-lost father. Nothing out of the ordinary you might think, except that Jim thinks his father is none other than legendary rock god, the Deep Purple and Whitesnake frontman, David Coverdale.
Crossing Ireland, England, Norway and Denmark, the band follows the trail of Coverdale as he plays to his adoring fans on the Whitesnake Forevermore world tour. The boys have got no money, no contacts, and absolutely no idea what they’re doing – just blind faith that one day soon Jim will be sharing a jacuzzi in a 5-star hotel with the dad of his dreams – and hopefully some hot Asian chicks…
Like the deranged, clueless and yet somehow rather charming offspring of Anvil and Spinal Tap, Dead Cat Bounce manage to blag their way backstage into the canon of truly great rock’n’roll mockumentaries. A must-see for fans of music, comedy and ridiculous ginger men in corpse-paint.
The Director and members of the cast will attend
Running Time: 82 mins | Colour
Producers: James Dean, Chris Carey
Script: Shane O’Brien, James Walmsley, Demian Fox, George Kane
Cast: Shane O’Brien, James Walmsley, Demian Fox
Production: Ashmore Films
Print Source: James Dean

Fri 12 Jul Town Hall Theatre 23.00

Dead cat bounce have their finial show on September 10th at vicar street Dublin with Mick Cullen rejoining them on keybords for night thus a a 4 piece once again. They previously rocked Galway as a 4 piece at the Róisín Dubh in 2009 at GAF 2009

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Close To Evil

In 1945 Tomi Reichental was a nine-year-old boy starving to death in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. SS woman Hilde Lisiewicz was one of the Nazi guards that kept Tomi and his family in brutal captivity. 68 years later in 2013, Tomi speaks to schools all over Ireland about what he witnessed and how 35 members of his family perished in the Holocaust. Ninety-one-year-old Hilde lives quietly alone in Hamburg – a devout Roman Catholic, popular in her parish. An RTÉ Radio interview leads Tomi to go in search of Hilde. Along the way he uncovers a dark secret that Hilde has long hidden. Tomi seeks neither to accuse nor to avenge. Will his quest end in rejection or redemption?

Tomi Reichental has previously done I Was a Boy in Belsen and a memior under that Title.

Tomi Reichental, who lost 35 members of his family in the Holocaust, gives his account of being imprisoned as a child at Belsen.

Tomi Reichental was nine-years old in October 1944 when he was rounded up by the Gestapo in a shop in Bratislava. Along with 12 other members of his family he was taken to a detention camp where the elusive Nazi War Criminal Alois Brunner had the power of life and death. Tomi, his mother Judith and his brother Miki, his granny Rosalia and two other relatives were dumped into a cattle wagon on a train bound for Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The others were sent to the slave labour camp at Buchenwald, where inmates were literally worked to death. It took seven days and nights for the train to arrive at Belsen as Allied bombing had disrupted rail links all across occupied Europe. All together, 35 members of the Reichental family – grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins – died in the Holocaust.

For 55 years, Tomi didn’t speak of his experiences “not because I didn’t want to, but because I couldn’t.” Since breaking his silence he has been on a mission of remembrance. Tomi has lived in Dublin since 1959 and hardly a week goes by without him travelling up and down the country to talk to Leaving Cert. students about his wartime boyhood experiences.

As one of only three Holocaust survivors left in Ireland, Tomi is mindful that the horrors of the Holocaust will soon pass from memory to history.

“The Holocaust happened and it can happen again, and every one of us, if only for our own sense of self preservation, has a solemn duty to ensure that nothing like it ever occurs again”

Tomi puts it very simply: “In the last couple of years I realised that, as one of the last witnesses, I must speak out.”

Tomi’s story is a story of the past. It is also a story for our times.. The Holocaust reminds us of the dangers of racism and intolerance, providing lessons from the past that are relevant today. In Tomi’s words “…. The Holocaust didn’t start with cattle wagons and gas chamber, but with whispers, taunts, daubing and then abuse and murder. One of the lessons we must learn is to respect difference and reject all forms of racism and discrimination.”

Tomi Reichenthal

Tomi Reichenthal returns to Belsen

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25TH GALWAY FILM FLEADH PROGRAMME

Closing Film | Dir. Stephen Brown | Ireland, UK | 2013

The Sea

Grieving after the death of his wife, Max Morden (Ciarán Hinds) returns to the seaside resort where he spent summers as a child. He lodges at a boarding house where frosty proprietor Miss Vavasour (Charlotte Rampling) now resides. Before long – and despite protestations from his daughter Clare (Ruth Bradley) – Max revisits the ghosts of his past.

Max’s mind returns to an idyllic summer in 1955 when, as a child, he encountered the Grace family. Carlo (Rufus Sewell) and Connie (Natascha McElhone) were unlike any adults he had met before.

Young Max befriends the young Grace twins, and his fascination for this unconventional clan transforms into intimacy and love. The children’s young nanny, Rose (Bonnie Wright) regards the new surrogate with quiet suspicion.

While Max recalls moments with his departed partner Anna (Sinéad Cusack), he also confronts a distant trauma from the past.

Monsters University

Ever since college-bound Mike Wazowski (voice of Billy Crystal) was a little monster, he has dreamed of becoming a Scarer – and he knows better than anyone that the best Scarers come from Monsters University (MU). But during his first semester at MU, Mike’s plans are derailed when he crosses paths with hotshot James P. Sullivan, ‘Sulley’ (voice of John Goodman), a natural-born Scarer. The pair’s out-of-control competitive spirit gets them both kicked out of the University’s elite Scare Programme. To make matters worse, they realise they will have to work together, along with an odd bunch of misfit monsters, if they ever hope to make things right.

Screaming with laughter and oozing with heart, Disney•Pixar’sMonsters University is directed by Dan Scanlon (Cars, Mater and the Ghostlight, Tracy), produced by Kori Rae (Up, The Incredibles,Monsters, Inc.) and features music from future Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and award-winning composer Randy Newman (Monsters, Inc., Toy Story 3).

THE REAL DEAL

This year the conference is focused firmly on the new international trends emerging in filmmaking, taking an encompassing look at what producers should be doing to meet the new demands of the marketplace from development through to production and market exploitation.

This year the conference will be moderated by Angus Finney and will feature an exciting line-up with speakers from the Irish and international industry.

11.00 – 11.45: Future Conversations: “Evolution or Revolution”Opening presentation on creative management by Angus Finney followed by a conversation with the new BSÉ/IFB Project Managers Rory Gilmartin, Mary Callery and Keith Potter on their thoughts for development and creative producing.

11.50 – 12.30: Future Business: “Low Budget – Big Ambition”An exploration of the practicalities, the do’s and don’ts of making a film on a tight budget without sacrificing artistic intent or market aspirations.

A discussion on the multiplatform UK release of Ben Wheatley’s “A FIELD IN ENGLAND”, Shane Meadows “MADE OF STONE” and Sophie Fiennes’ “A PERVERT’S GUIDE TO IDEOLOGY“ with Picturehouse.

Key Speakers: Sarah Frain & Gabriel Swartland (Picturehouse UK)

Please note that places will be limited at the conference as the venue has been changed to the Veranda Bar at the Radisson Hotel in Galway. You must sign up to secure your place atinfo@irishfilmboard.ie by Friday July 5th at 5pm.